Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 92% of U.S. towns · #234 of 758 in New York. What drives it
9 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1986 on, and the census since 1820.
The Moriah post office opened in 1816, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Pineville (1828) and Cheever (1882), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 92% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Moriah is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #234 of 758 in New York. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
New York towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New York town has 12.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Moriah’s 31.2 sits near the middle of its state (62% of New York towns have fewer) while its 14 historic buildings outnumber those of 78% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Moriah’s history is told.
Moriah’s post office has been open since 1816. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Peaked at 7,379 in 1880; 4,716 people lived here in 2020.
21 censuses, 1820–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Moriah’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Moriah.
This area was inhabited for thousands of years by varying cultures of indigenous peoples. At the time of European encounter, the area was inhabited chiefly by the historic Iroquoian-speaking Mohawk of the Iroquois Confederacy to the west of Lake Champlain, with the Algonquian-speaking Mahican people to the south.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Moriah, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Moses Swinton once had a saw mill on Big Sucker Brook which flows into Simonds Pond from the Moriah Mountain side. This saw-mill burned under circumstances which indicated a fire of incendiary origin.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archive1940 Census Enumeration District Descriptions - New York - Essex County - ED 16-15, ED 16…
Born hereChester B. McLaughlin is born here
In the archiveThe Iron Mine, Port Henry, New York
BuiltDelaware & Hudson Railroad Depot is built
Born hereRaymond R. Wright is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1860s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Moriah.
1986Lake Champlain South sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Moriah.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Moriah’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Moriah post office opened in 1816, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Moriah is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #234 of 758 in New York. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
9 listings: 9 buildings, among them the Van Ornam & Murdock Block (listed 1982, the first). 14 historic buildings in all.
36% of Moriah’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.5 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1951.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (9), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
c. 1862
2014
2011